Travelling To Tropical Islands Germany – Day 1

Hubby and I have been married for four years now but here’s a fun fact, we never had a honeymoon. For some reason it felt right to take a mini one in November. We decided to book a weekend break at Tropical Islands in Germany.

I actually left Hubby to organise the flights and timings of things, that felt slightly weird because I love planning holidays. We booked our flights with EasyJet who offered car rental with Europcar, it was actually cheaper and easier to hire a car than to navigate public transport in a foreign country.

We booked a super early flight so that we could make the most of our two nights in Germany. It was very weird being in an airport without children, we wandered through security check, we took a quick browse in the duty free (I’m kicking myself for not actually buying any Benefit makeup that was so cheap!) and then we boarded our plane with very little time to spare. The flight from London Gatwick to Germany took less than two hours and it was a pretty smooth ride. We had the ability to watch the sun rise and the sky was just beautifully red.

We navigated our way towards the rental car area to pick up our rental for the weekend. I was super chuffed to be offered the Fiat 500 which is actually the car I really want for our school run/errands car just for me. One day maybe. The lady did try to offer us an Audi which I thought Hubby would jump at the chance, but it turns out he was just as excited about the little run around car as I was. I’m so glad it was Hubby driving though as everything is the opposite in Germany.

It’s a really straight forward drive from Berlin Schönefeld Airport to Tropical Islands. There is actually a train stop that then offers a free shuttle bus service straight to Tropical Islands too for those not hiring a car. Parking is free. It’s hard to put in to words how it feels to see the dome for the first time, or at any point to be honest, it is incredible. To put it into perspective, it is big enough to fit the Statue of Liberty in standing up and the Eiffel Tower lying on its side. The Tropical Islands Dome covers an area the size of eight football fields. The dome was built in 1938 originally to be a airship hangar.

As you walk in to the reception you are hit by the heat. We went from being extremely chilly outside, to hitting tropical temperatures. We definitely felt over dressed with our clothes. There are two places to check in; one for day guests and one for guests staying overnight. In our case, two nights. The queue took a while and I had a sudden panic that the staff might not speak English. Thankfully they did know the basics and we was able to check in smoothly. They gave us a map, showed us whereabouts to find our room, the breakfast restaurant and the changing rooms. We was given wristbands each too.

The wristbands are a genius idea. They act as a key for your locker, room and also like a credit card. The chip wristband gives you a credit limit of €250 for guests staying overnight or €150 for day guests. Children also get issued their own limit too, children aged 6-14 have €35 and under 6s have zero. This just lets kids get drinks or snacks when they want to and I think that’s great. You are able to part or fully pay off your bill at any time using handy little cash desks.

Everyone gets a locker, it’s not a one per family thing. There are different sized lockers and your wristband has the number of your locker on. This is yours for the duration of your stay. You can arrive at Tropical Islands at any time after 6am but you cannot enter your room until 4pm, having the lockers is really useful to store your luggage and be able to kick start your water fun.

We decided to get changed into our swimming costumes and then head out for an explore before actually enjoying the water. The sheer size of everything is completely overwhelming, the locker room seemed to go on forever when we first tried to find our way out of it. One thing we noticed immediately, I wonder if this is a British thing, but how dry and clean the changing rooms were. There wasn’t any of those cringe moments when you place your dry feet on a water slippery swimming pool changing room, we’ve all been there. Oh and the floor was definitely heated and it felt amazing!!

I didn’t take any water related photos which was a bit stupid, we honestly was just in the moment having so much fun exploring every part of the Tropical Island resort. Inside there are 11 different zones. There are four main pool areas plus the Sauna & Spa area. One of those is a kiddie specific area and another is an outdoor tropical fun zone. The outdoor Amazonia had restricted open areas and times due to it being the winter season. You can see it in my various vlogs that I filmed whilst in Tropical Islands which can be viewed in the playlist here.

Hubby and I was so eager to see the room we would be spending two nights in. It was tucked away beside the Sauna & Spa and faced a beautiful flock of Flamingos, yes real ones! We had been booked to stay in a Premium room, there are many different types of accommodation both inside and outside the dome, even tents to give a real atmospheric experience of staying in a rainforest!

I was honestly taken back with the size of our room. It was air conditioned, had a huge bed and so much space surrounding it. You can see a sped up room tour in my first video that I’ve popped down at the bottom of this post. The room definitely had a tropical paradise feel to it, with exposed wood, wooden furniture and the beautifully coloured windows too. The shutters could be shut for privacy as obviously Tropical Islands is open nearly 24 hours a day.

The room had a flat screen television, a desk to write postcards on, a comfy soda with coffee table, a huge wardrobe space and complimentary tea/coffee with kettle too. There was also a little cupboard with a small fridge that had three different bottled drinks in; water, fizzy water and a fizzy apple juice (this got replenished each day of our stay). There was also a brilliant safe for storing your passport and expensive electrical items. Stupidly we forgot to pack our european travel adapter so we had a stress about charging our many devices. Despite not selling any in their on site shops along the Boulevard, Tropical Islands did have a handy charging station which we used twice. It was €1 for two hours, so not too bad really and again this was charged on your chip wristband.

Although we hadn’t taken the kids for this trip, there was a door which led through to this amazing bunk bed room. There was four single beds complete with storage and little stools. I felt instant guilt because I knew that the girls would have loved staying in this room. But we told ourselves that this trip was about us and that we needed some time to be a couple, ultimately none of the girls can swim unaided and for us right in this moment of time it would have been very difficult for us to enjoy ourselves at Tropical Islands if they were with us. Mean I know, but true.

Saying that though, there is so much for children to do. The Tropino Club alone offers a climbing area, soft play, Lego building, paddling pool, toddlers area and creative area, plus a huge pirate ship to explore. Then there are zones in the Tropical Sea where they could safely play and paddle, including the sandy beach. It just would have been much easier for us if one of the three children could swim unaided. We are totally outnumbered.

Our shower room in the Premium room was absolutely stunning, real bathroom dreams in a tiny space. It felt modern and spacious. There are complimentary shower products, hair products too which is brilliant if you forgot your own. Hubby and I had actually only taken hand luggage with us and it would have been handy to know that there were products available as we could have saved some space in our bags. As you can see in the photo, there are plenty of towels provided. You can actually borrow bath robes or towels for using in Tropical Islands, you put a deposit of €30 per towel. We did do this until we had checked in to our room, we then returned the rented towels and just took our room towels instead.

Hubby and I took a relaxed shower, chilled out in our room and then researched food outlets. I had visioned going out into Berlin in the evenings for dinner and seeing what the night life has to offer. But we were both pretty wiped out from a previous late bedtime with a 2:45am wake up to get to the airport, and obviously a large chunk of the day swimming and doing water slides. So we took a look in our handy brochure/map and read about the restaurants on offer inside the dome.

There’s 13 different restaurants, bars and lounges on offer. Some are open all day like the Lagoon Bar, a lot of them are open just afternoons through to the evenings. We picked to eat at the Sawadee Restaurant, this is also where you get your breakfast from too. From 12pm it is an Asian buffet restaurant where they charge you per weight of your food, it was something like €2.20 per 100g I believe. Both Hubby’s and my meal cost us a total of around €11, pretty good for a full plate of Asian deliciousness. The choice was brilliant too. The only thing I found rather expensive in Tropical Islands was there drinks which was a shame.

After filling our bellies Hubby and I headed back to the room. We had decided to chill out for a little bit and then head off for some late night swimming. The main indoor pools are open until midnight and Hubby was really excited about that. I decided to take a quick half an hour nap which turned out to be an hour where I woke up to Hubby fast asleep too. We made the decision to take an early night (it was 7pm when we fell asleep) and wake up bright and early to start our next day.

Keep your eye out for our second and third day in Berlin, featuring photos of the pools and more video underwater footage. But for now I’ll leave you with this video:

Jodie Fisher

Welcome I am a young mum of three daughters; P1 born 2008, P2 born 2013 and P3 who was born in 2014. Our eldest is suspected to have ASD and we are going through that diagnosis process at the moment. Together with my family we cover topics relating to parenting, our daily struggles and joys of life, product reviews, our travel adventures, baking, crafts and everything in between. I hope you enjoy being here and please contact me if you have any queries.